Miss Liberty

2006-09-19T20:53:00.000-06:00

9/19/06 This is the end of our blog on our 3,000 mile trip on the Inside Passage to Alaska on our American Tug Miss Liberty. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact us at garbe@pressenter.com. If you would like to read the blog from the start of the trip scroll down on the left and click on May. Then since blogs list the most recent entry at the top, you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the beginning. Thanks for checking out our blog. The Garbe's

2006-09-19T20:43:00.000-06:00

9/14/06 Here is Miss Liberty's home for the next eight months. The marina starts to launch boats for the year about May 15. We rented a slip just up the road at Pike's Bay Marina for next summer. We plan to spend a full year in Lake Superior before we move on.

2006-09-19T20:26:00.000-06:00

9/13/06 Miss Liberty arrived safe and sound today at Washburn, WI on Lake Superior. She has lot's of road dirt but not a scratch otherwise. The marina washed her for us and then left her in the travel lift overnight so we could put the railing back on and mount the tender back on the swim platform. Tommorrow they will put her in a heated storage shed for the winter.

2006-09-10T21:41:00.000-06:00

9/8/06 Jerry DenAdel of Associated Boat Transport came this afternoon and loaded our boat on his truck to take it to Washburn, WI on the southern shore of Lake Superior. It took over three hours to load and fasten everything down. The boat is an oversize load, almost 14 ' wide and 15' 1" tall. During a lot of the trip he will have a car going ahead of him with a vertical pole 15' 1" high on it's bumper checking clearance of the overpasses. We know from our drive out to Seattle from WI that he will have a lot overpasses too low on the freeway that he will have to go around. Having said that I think we will have to hurry to stay ahead of him in our RV on the way home.

2006-09-03T17:46:00.000-06:00

9/3/06 Trip Statistics -

57 days - 3 days we didn't travel, 1 of which was due to bad weather

2921 NMiles

51.2 miles per day

1.8 miles/gal

26 nights at docks

2 nights mooring bouys

25 nights at anchor

402 hours on engine

8.7 kts normal travel speed

2006-09-03T09:46:00.000-06:00

9/3/06 We're keeping good company here at the transient dock at the La Conner City Marina. It's been fun watching the boats come and go over the holiday weekend. The Swinomish Channel runs right along the dock so there's boats to watch there too. We've been busy the last three days washing, waxing, cleaning ,oiling teak, doing maintenance and moving things to our RV for the trip back to WI. Today I'll change oil and service the generator and main engine. Tomorrow I'll winterize the boat, drain out all the water and add antifreeze to all the lines and tanks.

2006-08-31T22:35:00.000-06:00

8/30/06 After eight weeks of travel on Miss Liberty we're safe and sound back in La Conner, Washington.
We're helping Jerry and Nancy load their things in their camper van for their trip home to Minnesota. We'll follow in a week after we get Miss Liberty ready for shipping back home.

2006-08-31T21:47:00.000-06:00

8/30/06 Yesterday we crossed back into the United States and spent the night at Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands. It's a fairly large harbor of mostly transient boaters. The picture shows some of the new summer homes they're building there. Fun place to explore. At dusk everyone joins together on the dock for lowering of the flags and firing the cannon to mark the end of the day. At nine this morning we were treated to a carillon concert echoing through the harbor.

2006-08-28T21:56:00.000-06:00

8/27/06 Montague Harbor is a large protected cove where close to a hundred boats are anchored with us tonight. We can see two other American Tugs also anchored here. The bay has a Marine Park on the north end where we spent the afternoon hiking and exploring the beach. This is all part of an island filled with vacation homes.
In the evening we hopped on the Pub Bus which picks up customers at the campground and harbor. It takes you through the hills on the wildest bus ride I've ever been on to the local pub. A night to remember!

2006-08-28T12:14:00.000-06:00

8/26/06 We did a great hike in Teakerne Arm before we left Desolation Sound this morning. Spent a couple hours taking in the sights at Nanaimo before stopping at Buccaneer Bay to anchor.

2006-08-28T11:52:00.000-06:00

8/25/06 We explored Desolation Sound today including going up Toba Inlet.

Spent the night in beautiful Prideau Haven with 20 other boats. This is the first short sleeve shirt day we've had in seven weeks and we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of pleasure boaters.

2006-08-28T11:23:00.000-06:00

8/24/06 We left early this morning from our anchorage in Forward Harbor headed to Campbell River on Vancouver Is. Shortly after getting under way we had our first black bear sighting since the Schillings have been aboard. We spotted him walking along shore during low tide. Our route which took us through Johnstone Strait was slow going because of a 2 1/2 kt current against us and rough seas. We made Seymour Narrows at slack tide and was of no concern.

In Campbell River we visited their museum and saw a movie on the demolition of Ripple Rock. Ripple Rock was a hazard in Seymour Narrows that sunk many boats at the cost of more than 100 lives. The blast to remove it in 1958 was the largest at the time since the atomic bombs of World War II.

2006-08-23T09:50:00.000-06:00

8/22/06 We spent the night at Fury Cove primed for a crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound early in the morning. The morning weather report said 1.8 meter waves and swells so we waited a day for better weather.( We go at 1 meter or less) We spent the day at Duncanby Harbor, a sport fishing resort. The crossing the next day went just fine and we stopped at Sullivan Bay for the night. The picture shows Pierre's Bay, a small floating resort. It a whole new side of boating staying at these small resorts. Things are very social in the evenings sharing boating stories, visiting other boats and having group dinners. Last night was a big spaghetti feed. Bring your own plate.

2006-08-23T09:04:00.000-06:00

8/18/06 I thought Ocean Falls had a picturesque setting for a town but I think Bella Coola has it beat. We stopped here in part to see their local museum and learn more about Mackenzie and the settlers from Minnesota that founded the town. We met an Indian carving a totem pole. We asked him what was the meaning of the figures on the pole and we were treated to the historys of many Indian legends.

This is to prove that no one goes hungry on this boat.

2006-08-20T19:24:00.000-06:00

8/17/06 We've seen such great scenery, seen all the special animals and birds and had such great experiences that when we start out in the morning it's hard to imagine we can have yet another exciting day but we always do. Today as we went out into Dean Channel we came across a large pod of Killer Whales and shut the motor off and drifted among them while they put on a good show feeding on samon. From there we went into South Bentinck Arm and came across two chinnock helicopters flying timber down the mountainside. The danger and flying skill level was beyond belief. We watched as they dropped the logs into the water in front of us.

Them we went to the end of S. Bentinck Arm and anchored for lunch in front of some world class scenery.
We ended the day hiking up from Larso Bay to the largest Red Cedar in B.C. It was nearly 20 ft diameter at the base. So goes another day of adventure.

2006-08-20T19:08:00.000-06:00

8/16/06 Today we anchored in Eucott Bay and went to the hot springs there. The water comes out of the mountain side quite warm and people have taken rocks and concrete to make a large hot tub.
We also passed the monument that marks the site where Sir Alexander Mackenzie completed his overland journey across Canada to the Pacific. He was the first person to cross North America to the Pacific, many years before Lewis and Clark.

2006-08-20T17:42:00.000-06:00

8/15/06 Today we stopped at Ocean Falls and I just fell in love with the town. It was a paper mill with 5,000 residents but after the mill closed 30 years ago the population is down to 30 winter residents and 100 summer residents. The town is trying be reborn as a retirement community. Fun place to explore. The picture is the power dam above the town.

2006-08-15T21:53:00.000-06:00

8/10/06 There are a half dozen fjords claiming to be the best of the Inside Passage but our vote goes to Gardner Canal. We'll let the pictures show why. The boating is safe and hazard free but we saw very few other boats here.

2006-08-15T20:13:00.000-06:00

8/8/06 Today we traveled down Grenville Channel and stopped at Baker Inlet. The narrow entrance is 60 feet deep but gets down to only 30 feet wide. The picture shows it as we left in the morning at slack tide but we entered it at two hours before slack the night before. We definitely wouldn't do that again because it was a very turbulent three knots and we had to add a lot of power to maintain control. We forgot it was spring tide. (Tides change the most at new and full moon and are called spring tides.)

2006-08-15T19:07:00.000-06:00

8/6/06 We left Ketchikan and made a short stop at the Native American village of Metlakata. It had a great harbor and we enjoyed a walk around town. Sampled some home made treats at a food both in the city park. We spent the night in Foggy Bay shown in the picture. It's at the half way mark to Prince Rupert.

2006-08-06T10:03:00.000-06:00

8/6/06 Nancy and Jerry on the left, are our new crew for the trip to La Conner. After a day of sightseeing, grocery shopping and boat familiarization yesterday in Ketchikan, we're starting out this morning.

2006-08-06T09:52:00.000-06:00

8/5/06 We flew back to Ketchikan and are ready to start the second half of our trip of Ketchikan to LaConner,WA. John, who was watching the boat in Ketchikan while we were at home, flew home today. The airport is on the other side of Tongass Narrows from town so we took John over to the airport dock with our boat.

2006-08-03T07:16:00.000-06:00

7/29/06 Today we flew home from Ketchikan for a six day brake in the trip. We need to attend to somethings on the farm and check up on the grandchildren. The picture is downtown Ketchican and in the foreground is the empty cruise ship dock. The cruise ships don't normally stop on weekends. The harbor in the center is Thomas Basin where we left the boat. Son John will stay on board until we return for the second half of the trip.

2006-07-29T13:10:00.000-06:00

7/27/06 Today we went through two fjords (Walker Cove and Punchbowl Cove) in Misty Fjords National Monument. Barb and John did a mile hike along a mountain stream and waterfall to a beautiful mountain lake. I stayed on the boat because it was too deep of water to anchor safely (120 feet). The fog and haze cleared off quite a bit today so we could see the snow covered mountain tops. We used a private buoy to tie up for the night. The tour companies use it during the day.
On our way back to Ketchikan we passed New Eddystone Rock, a southern Alaska landmark.

2006-07-29T12:41:00.000-06:00

7/26/06 and we started clock-wise around the Behm Canal on the way to the Misty Fjords. Once you get off the Inside Passage in Alaska the boats are relatively few. Today we didn't see another boat on the Behm. It's very remote with no radio reception of any kind. There are always sport fishing boats from fly-in fish camps and commercial fishing boats around somewhere so there's always emergency help if you needed it. It's just that if you have a break-down help is slow to arrive and very expensive because of the distances involved. This is a picture of Klu Bay off of Shrimp Bay where we anchored. It's my favorite anchorage we've had in Alaska. Steep mountains all-around, two small creeks for bear watching, (we didn't see any.) a big rock with a dozen seals on and lots of eagles.

2006-07-29T09:24:00.000-06:00

7/20 We stopped in Vixen Harbor for the night. It's a beautiful little cove just big enough for two or three boats to anchor. We pick out places to stop from the four guidebooks we use. The anchor has always set very easily and the water has been almost always dead calm. We are quite often the only boat and usually go exploring with the tender in the evening. We almost never go to shore because of bear issues.
This is the Meyers' Chuck newspaper, phone company and post office. Barb was reading the guidebook and said we should stop at this place for awhile. So we pulled into Meyers Chuck for a quick look see.
It turned out to be a delightful little harbor with a nice government float. There are no businesses, just 15 to 20 very interesting cabins and a nice hike through the rain forest to the opposite beach. It's always nice to find a good spot to get off the boat for awhile and hike around. Great stop.

2006-07-24T00:01:00.000-06:00

This is my first posting in a while because there isn't usable internet north of Wrangel. If you scroll down to the last post you read and then move up things will be in order as they happened. This is Thomas Bay, NW of Petersburg. It has giant mountains, a neat glacier and is an all around beautiful spot. We anchored here two different times.

2006-07-23T23:39:00.000-06:00

7/19 We stayed at a small government float on Entrance Is. in Hobart Bay. We shared the float with a 3rd generation Norwegian salmon fisherman from Petersburg. He had a wonderful boat and answered all our questions about the fishing industry. He also showed us how to spot the mountain goats on the mountain in the background.
Not to be outdone, we have our own fisherman in residence.

2006-07-23T22:50:00.000-06:00

Dawes Glacier

Sawyer Glacier

7/17 We headed up the narrow 22 mile long Tracy Arm to see Sawyer Glacier that calves icebergs into the sea. The route is lined with 5,000 to 6,000 ft mountains that drop straight into the sea, too steep for trees to grow on. The water is over 1,000 feet deep and full of ice. The sights were awesome. The next day we went up Endicott Arm to see Dawes Glacier which was just as great as the day before. Every boater should try to do this sometime. This is as far north as we will go. Like they say in Labrador, it's not the end of the world but you can see it from here!

2006-07-23T22:33:00.000-06:00

7/16 We headed north from Petersburg in Stephens Passage and came across a bay full of Humpback whales. (20 to 25+) We stopped the boat for an hour and a half and had about 7 whales swim right near the boat. We watched them dive repeatedly and breech at least a dozen times, two times right next to the boat. A breech is when they fly out of the water and then turn to crash to the water on their backs. It was quite thrilling! It was a very still day so you could heaar them breathe and make loud sounds just like a bull.

2006-07-23T22:02:00.000-06:00

7/15 We stayed in Petersburg Harbor. This is a small town with a fishing fleet and two fish canneries. They don't have special slips just for cruising boats. You stay in a fisherman's slip while he's gone out fishing. There is a two block long main street that is just bustling with people going about their business. They have a six week tourist season and a three month salmon fishing season to make most of their income for the year. Temps are 55 to 60 but they don't have much frost in the winter. We just loved the town.

2006-07-14T10:54:00.000-06:00

We stopped at the Anan Wildlife Observatory that's NW of Ketchikan on Thursday morning. They only allow sixty visitors a day and we were lucky to be three of them. We anchored out and took our tender up a creek to meet a Ranger who instructed us on how to safely hike the 1/2 mile trail to the viewing platform. The platform is near a small falls where black and brown bears along with eagles fish for salmon. It was an experience of a lifetime. We ran into one bear on the trail but he went on his way and left us alone. The viewing platform has a three foot fence around it and two park rangers to answer your questions. We were about 15 - 20 feet from this grizzly and just 5 - 10 feet from some black bears. The mothers had the cutest little cubs. The bald eagles were everywhere and very close.

Thursday night we stayed at Wrangell, a wonderful small Alaskan fishing town. We all had the most wonderful fresh prawns (large shrimp) for supper. There is an 18 foot tide here and a fisherman parked his boat on a Grid at high tide so he could work on it when the tide went out.

2006-07-12T14:49:00.000-06:00

Tuesday we crossed Dixon Entrance to Ketchikan. It's 95 miles from Prince Rupert and includes 30 miles open to the ocean. Again we had weather reports of gale and storm warnings in late evening and overnight. The morning had clear skies and little wind so we headed out. We traveled at 15 kts for the first half and then back to 8.7 kts for the last half. We lucked out and had calm to small ripple seas most of the way.

Ketchikan has the cruise ships, four when we arrived. They are quite a contrast to the small town atmosphere and mountain backround.
I will remember the small float planes most though when we think of Ketchikan. I would say there are about thirty of them at the dock giving sightseeing rides to the cruise ship customers. When they land, some only 30 seconds apart, they look like a snake of dots in the sky. When they take off it sounds like WW II fighers doing a bombing run, their engine at full throttle going by in quick succession.

2006-07-12T14:42:00.000-06:00

7/10 We stopped at a marina in Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert is a small town but a very large port because it's at the end of the Canadian National Rail Line. They load grain and coal for export.

2006-07-12T14:29:00.000-06:00

7/9 We spent the night at beautiful Lowe Inlet anchored in front of Vernery Falls. The current from the falls kept us facing away from the shore. A beautiful trawler next to us had to leave when the wind changed directions and he swung too close to shore. He left just as it was getting dark and had at least another hour or two to find another anchorage. The bottom drops off so fast it's hard to find an anchorage that's not too deep.

2006-07-10T21:31:00.000-06:00

Sunday morning we stopped at Bishop Bay Hotsprings for a delightful hot tub soak. It's just this buiding out in the middle of nowhere that everyone on the Inside Passage stops at. In the evening we anchored at Lowe Inlet right in front of a beautiful waterfalls.

We stopped at Butedale for Saturday night. It's an old fish cannery ghost town that quit operation forty years ago that John wanted to see. It has a delightful retired older gentleman that is the caretaker. We hired his granddaughter, who was staying with him for the summer, to give us a tour.

2006-07-06T21:36:00.000-06:00

We left at 5:30 AM Wed. for an uneventful three hour crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound. No complaints. We stopped early so we could go hiking along the ocean at Pruth Bay. We anchored there for the night with this sailboat. It was the first cloudy day since we left Wisconsin June 10.

2006-07-04T16:10:00.000-06:00

This is Dent Rapids, the last of three major rapids that are together on the Inside Passage. We had heard so much about how dangerous they can be that we didn't know what to expect. We followed the cruising guides' instructions and timed our passage for slack water. We found them to be quite tame at that time. Dent has a whirlpool that forms called Devil's Hole that can suck a canoe down.
Later Tuesday, we entered Queen Charlotte Strait and had our first heavy weather, with waves 3 to 4 ft. and spray on the windows continually. Our tug gave us a very comfortable ride at our cruising speed of 8 1/2 knots.
Barb puts on a big feast for John and me every night. No hardships here.

We left our anchorage early this morning and found the strait calm so we sped up to 15 knots to get to the top of the strait before the winds came up. We will anchor at Walker Group Islands tonight and leave early to cross Queen Charlottee Sound if conditions are good. That will be one of the few times we will be exposed to the open ocean on the trip as we go around Cape Caution opposite the top of Vancouver Island.

2006-07-02T12:25:00.000-06:00

We entered Princess Louisa Inlet Sat. morning. We found a mooring bouy to tie on to then went on a tender tour of the inlet. The first picture shows us in front of Chatterbox Falls.
Then we took a two hour hike up the mountain on the roughest trail I ever have been on but the view at the top of the inlet was fantastic. Sunday we will head toward Powell River.

2006-06-30T15:34:00.000-06:00

This is Dodd Narrows, our first serious rapids to pass on the Inside Passage. It's on the lower east coast of Vancover Island near Nanaimo. We stayed at Pirates Cove last night (June 29) just south of here. We crossed the Strait of Georgia this morning. It was like glass. We're at Pender Harbor this afternoon for supplies, then on to Princess Louisa Inlet tomorrow.

2006-06-28T22:08:00.000-06:00

We finally were ready to leave on our trip Wednesday morning. We finished buying supplies and packing Tuesday. Tuesday evening we had a training session on operation of our engine from a Cummins factory rep which was very helpful. We traveled 30 miles on our first day out and stopped at Friday Harbor in the San Juans. This is a shot of the harbor. Tomorrow we head into Canada.

2006-06-26T22:27:00.000-06:00

We spent Sunday on a 60 mile shake down cruise to the San Juan Islands. The weather has been perfect with no clouds, 80 degrees and no wind except in the afternoon. The picture shows Mt. Baker looking from the San Juans.
We practiced our boating skills using the radar, auto pilot, electronic chart plotter and traditional navigation skills. It's great to have John along because he picks up using the electronics so easily and then can teach me as we go. Everything has been fantastic. The boat is better than we ever expected, the electronics work perfect and we feel we will have the skills to start on our adverture.

2006-06-25T09:06:00.000-06:00

Saturday was spent shopping for the rest of our boating supplies. We left a lot of money at Walmart and West Marine. We spent the afternoon stowing everything away.
John spent the evening doing a tender "sea trial". By his smile it must have passed. Tomorrow (Sun) we will head to the San Juans for some boating practice.

2006-06-24T07:55:00.000-06:00

Here is the results of our week outfitting the boat in Anacortes. This picture shows the window screens that we had made by Doug Comstock.
Anacortes Marine Electronics installed Furuno radar, chart plotter, auto pilot, depth sounder, GPS and two Icon VHF radios.
Eric Paul from by Design did an incredible job on the graphics.
Cap Sante Marine sold us a Boss 8.5 ft tender with a 9.9hp Honda motor and installed a Sea Wise system to secure everthing on the swim platform.

Son John arrived Thursday and has signed on as crew.

2006-06-21T12:08:00.000-06:00

Kurt Dilworth from American Tug gave us training in our new boat while we moved it from La Conner to Anacortes Monday. We will be in Anacortes the rest of the week while the boat completes commissioning. Needless to say the first ride in our boat was real exciting.

2006-06-19T09:19:00.000-06:00

Sunday we went for a senic drive up to Mt. Baker. We tried to ski here in January but it was closed because of too much snow. The last 3 miles of road is still closed. Did some great hikes.

2006-06-19T09:13:00.000-06:00

This is the famous Rainbow Bridge in La Conner. We spent Saturday seeing the local sights in La Conner ( Boating flea market, boat show and quilt museum)

2006-06-15T23:14:00.000-06:00

We had any exciting day today. We watched the factory roll our completed boat outside and then launch it for the sea trial. We spent the morning in Seattle purchasing the remaining charts we needed and buying boating gear.

2006-06-13T08:04:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of Coeur d' Alene Lake in Idaho. Fantastic scenery all the way from Wisconsin to La Conner , WA. East of Moses Lake, WA. was some of the most scenic crop land I've ever seen. Arrived at the American Tug factory this afternoon.

2006-06-10T21:15:00.000-06:00

Here we are ready to start on our trip from Hudson, WI to Seattle. We won't be sleeping in our RV because it's full of things for the boat. We made it to Bismark, ND the first night.

2006-06-10T06:51:00.000-06:00

The neighborhood Garbes had a great 60th birthday party for me and a big send off for Barb and me. See everyone in three months.

2006-06-09T21:42:00.000-06:00

We talked to the factory and they said everything is on schedule for a June 12 launch.
The beginning of next week will be spent checking to see that everything works.

2006-05-28T20:10:00.000-06:00

This is our boat under construction in La Conner, Washington. It should be completed around June 12.